Has anyone tried the yogurt with hemp milk? I was thinking maybe a combination of almond and hemp to get the added protein from the hemp, but cut the strong flavor with the mildness of the almond. I have literally never seen unsweetened plain non-dairy yogurt in a store, only the sweetened plain. I have a container of whole soy sweetened plain to use to start the culture, but I can really only tolerate soy in small quantities. I was planning to use almond but now I'm seeing people haven't been having luck with that.

I have not had luck with almond or rice milk, even enriched with cashews. I think there is just not enough protein for them to thicken properly. The rice milk didn't do anything and had to be thrown away. The almond milk cultured, but was more like buttermilk than yogurt. That's when I looked at my containers of store bought almond milk and realized how many thickeners they use. I'm guessing oat milk will have the same problem as the rice milk. I know at least one other person on this thread has had luck with coconut milk yogurt. I would try that, and definitely try it belnded with the cashews to give some body.

Loomi wrote:

I would go for an oat milk yoghurt enriched with cashews like in the book, or an oat/coconut combo. For cheese i would recommend oat/ cashew. BUT you will need to thicken it with some starch. I like glutinous rice flour. I need to go to sleep now but i can give some more specific directions later.

Thank you both! I don't mind using some starch as long as the result is good. I want thick, creamy yoghurt, that I can use for sauces and stuff (used to eat a lot of Turkish style yoghurt).

This coconut milk yogurt recipe just went up on Serious Eats. It might give you a starting point for how much starch to add.

I've thickened my sharp cheddar now, and ıt still just smells like yeast. Haven't tasted it yet though, will let it sit for a week or so first. It's quite off-putting, but maybe that's how cheese smells? I don't know, I haven't had that stuff in years.

Has anyone made rejuvelac with millet? It was oddly all that I had, and figured it wouldn't be a big deal, but it is taking FOREVER to sprout. Is there no hope for it, or just a long wait?

The millet usually sold in stores is hulled, and therefore not a whole seed. I don't think it will sprout. I hate quinoa, but bought some just because that's what everyone on here seemed to have the best luck with, and it worked perfectly. Just make sure you don't accidentally buy sprouted quinoa. And since I didn't want to waste the quinoa, but also had no interest in eating it, I threw it in the yard for the birds. They were thrilled.

Got the book yesterday, am starting rejuvelac today (with quinoa). Has anyone tried making yoghurt with oat, rice or coconut milk? I'm allergic to almonds, and soy milk/yoghurt makes my throat itch and my eyes puff up. The oat yoghurt available here is so sweet there's no way I can make cheese with it.

I would go for an oat milk yoghurt enriched with cashews like in the book, or an oat/coconut combo. For cheese i would recommend oat/ cashew. BUT you will need to thicken it with some starch. I like glutinous rice flour. I need to go to sleep now but i can give some more specific directions later.

So here are some more details, maybe too many, about yoghurt... I've made many batches of non-soy yoghurts, with various combinations of oat, almond, sunflower, sesame, cashew and coconut milks. All the milks are homemade, except for the coconut. I have never had a batch fail, however it is always different, sometimes better than other times. There may be some trial and error involved in finding what you like. Experiment! I suggest you make your own oat (or whatever) milk for this - people seem to have more success with homemade, at least anecdotally, on the web. And oatmilk is so forking cheap and easy to make it might as well be free. I just use rolled oats. If you need some tips for how to make it, just say.

If you use oat milk as a base I definitely think you'll want to add something, like cashews or coconut milk to oatmilk to make it richer. I've found that coconut can develop a nasty flavour (butyric acid, I think) when fermented, though it can be really good if its not cultured too long, or at too warm a temperature, and it doesn't sit in the fridge too many days. I would not use coconut yoghurt in a cheese that required further culturing. But it might just be a matter of my personal taste.

For the starch you could use glutinous rice flour (a.k.a. sweet rice flour/ mochiko) or potato starch or sweet potato starch or tapioca (if you don't mind the taste). I used to use agar as well as starch but found it wasn't worth the bother for me.

So for about a litre of yoghurt it would be something like this-

You need approximately one litre(a quart/four cups) of milk(s), a quarter cup of glutinous rice flour (or your starch of choice), a couple teaspoons of sugar (if your milk is unsweetened - this replaces the lactose and is food for the bacteria) and one or two tablespoons of some sort of yoghurt to use as a starter. Place your starch and sugar in a small bowl and add some milk, about three quarters of a cup. Mix until smooth. Heat the rest of the milk in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring fairly frequently. Oat milk will thicken a bit when its cooked, so stirring is important to keep it smooth. When it starts to lightly simmer, turn the heat down, whisk in the starch mix and turn the heat back to medium. Keep whisking until it's thickened and it tastes like the starch is cooked. Remove from heat. When it's cool enough add your yoghurt. mix and incubate as usual.

Play around with the amount of starch to make it thicker or thinner, and remember you can strain it to make it richer and thicker. And keep the whey that drains off, there are heaps of uses for it.

It may split, if it does just stir it up and don't incubate it quite so long next time.

Has anyone made rejuvelac with millet? It was oddly all that I had, and figured it wouldn't be a big deal, but it is taking FOREVER to sprout. Is there no hope for it, or just a long wait?

The millet usually sold in stores is hulled, and therefore not a whole seed. I don't think it will sprout. I hate quinoa, but bought some just because that's what everyone on here seemed to have the best luck with, and it worked perfectly. Just make sure you don't accidentally buy sprouted quinoa. And since I didn't want to waste the quinoa, but also had no interest in eating it, I threw it in the yard for the birds. They were thrilled.

The sprouted quinoa is great in bread, makes it rich and filling. Just throw it in with your normal recipe.

Rejuvelac - FINALLY! All I can say is that I now have much more empathy for those of you who struggled with rejuvelac. I had no problem with this step of the process until recently, and after four failed batches (3 wheat/1 quinoa), I was about to give up. After searching the internet, I discovered that sprouting "soft" rather than "hard" wheat berries is the key to success. If you're still having trouble with this step, you might want to try to find some soft wheat berries.

Air-Dried Cheddar (p. 30) - My second batch is resting and looking/smelling fantastic. I've had great success with this recipe both times I've made it and will definitely be making this one again and again.

Smoked Provolone (p. 51) - My first time trying this, and it's been an epic fail. I followed the directions to a "T" and am not quite sure where I went wrong. I used the called-for pine nuts (instead of cashews) and agar instead of carrageenan. After sitting on the counter overnight to dry, I had an oily, gloppy mess.

I was planning to pitch it, but decided to see if I could somehow salvage it. I dumped it back into the blender along with a few more drops of liquid smoke and another heaping tbsp of agar that I dissolved in some rejuvelac. I then put it back on the stove and reheated it. When I took it off the stove, I had a huge pool of oil floating on top, so I took out my trusty immersion blender and blended the heck out of it to try and pull it back together. It's in a bowl resting now, so we'll see.

Brie: I have to say the Brie was really good. I will have to post pictures later because I froze the remaining. I have one suggestion for the Brie: more salt

Pub Cheddar: so a lot of people in this thread raved about the pub cheddar so I thought I'd give it a go. Again, another successful cheese. It looks a little like hummus (from the brown beer), but tastes delish. I personally have enjoyed day 3+ 4 of the pub cheddar best. I still have some in the fridge and will see how it tastes in the upcoming days. I don't have any suggestions for this recipe it is good as is. It is soft and really quite good with pita chips. Maybe I'll get a shot of this cheese before I devour it.

So now, I'm off to troll this thread for my next cheezy creation. Thanks everyone for the updates.

Has anyone made rejuvelac with millet? It was oddly all that I had, and figured it wouldn't be a big deal, but it is taking FOREVER to sprout. Is there no hope for it, or just a long wait?

The millet usually sold in stores is hulled, and therefore not a whole seed. I don't think it will sprout. I hate quinoa, but bought some just because that's what everyone on here seemed to have the best luck with, and it worked perfectly. Just make sure you don't accidentally buy sprouted quinoa. And since I didn't want to waste the quinoa, but also had no interest in eating it, I threw it in the yard for the birds. They were thrilled.

Oh gosh, thank you so much!! I had no idea, the book just says you *can* you millet, and it was all that I had the amount of. I have had luck with both quinoa and wheat berries, so I will just go back to that.

I use my soaked grains from rejuvelac for raw crackers :) But birds, what a great idea!!

Anyone have any ideas for yellowing the Sharp cheddar cheese that won't involved Tumeric? I am afraid the tumeric will make it too bitter. I think the color is unappealing if I were to serve it to anyone other than myself.

_________________"Evolution is a constant process"If God hands you a literal lemon- keep your head up- Build a Lemonade Stand

My quinoa for rejuvelac didn't sprout, it just went really gross and rotten. Is there a trick to this? I've sprouted seeds before, but never grains.

_________________Did you notice the slight feeling of panic at the words "Chicken Basin Street"? Like someone was walking over your grave? Try not to remember. We must never remember. - mumblesIs this about devilberries and nazifruit again? - footface

Got the book yesterday, am starting rejuvelac today (with quinoa). Has anyone tried making yoghurt with oat, rice or coconut milk? I'm allergic to almonds, and soy milk/yoghurt makes my throat itch and my eyes puff up. The oat yoghurt available here is so sweet there's no way I can make cheese with it.

I would go for an oat milk yoghurt enriched with cashews like in the book, or an oat/coconut combo. For cheese i would recommend oat/ cashew. BUT you will need to thicken it with some starch. I like glutinous rice flour. I need to go to sleep now but i can give some more specific directions later.

So here are some more details, maybe too many, about yoghurt... .

I made a first attempt and it's not yoghurt. I used purchased oat milk and soy yoghurt for a starter. After I added the (potato) starch to the hot milk it was a little too thick, so I added some coconut milk, which made it taste really good. Incubated in the oven with the lamp on (probably a little too cold). The next morning, it was runny and there was no noticable yoghurt taste. I'm wondering what happened to the starch? I'll try again and be more careful with the temperature, and if it doesn't work I'll probably order some yoghurt starter.

_________________I tend to hook up with people who give me chocolate, but I fail to see how this is a bad thing./tofulish

I tried to sprout some brown rice. It didn't sprout per se (no little tail) but looked like other peoples' photos of sprouted rice so I made rejuvelac out of it. One jar of rejuvelac smelled yeasty and sharp whereas the other smelled like feet - should I throw the smellier one away?

I used the least smelly rejuvelac in some basic cashew cheese which matured for 24 hours. When I went to scoop it into the blender again it had little bubbly air pockets in it - should this have happened or not?

I made the brie out of it which is now in the fridge. I tasted it before it went in and it's very much like Red Leicester rather than brie - that's not a bad thing as I used to love Red Leicester. I have to wonder if the rejuvelac didn't work properly.

i think if it turned cheesy in any way then the rejuvelac is working. i think air bubbles are expected. so far the cheeses i've made have all basically had the same cheesy taste, which is more like goat cheese than other cheese i can remember, so i'm not sure if you should really expect the cheeses to taste just like their non vegan counter parts.

_________________I am not a troll. I am TELLING YOU THE ******GOD'S TRUTH****** AND YOU JUST DON'T WANT THE HEAR IT DO YOU?

Rejuvelac is supposed to make your cheese bubbly, so that's normal. Mine sometimes smells a little strange too, but it makes delicious cheese and I've never gotten sick, so I think it is fine. Maybe it's just a result of slightly different cultures that can live in it. Enjoy your Red Leicester!

My yoghurt is culturing in the oven at the moment. Miyoko says in the recipe that it's alright to culture it in the oven if you can bring down the temperature to 110 F (43 C). The lowest my oven can go is 50 C, but I hope it will work out.

I think 50c may be too high, I've found that if I accidentally have my oven that hot I don't get a good set...

On another subject I had soaked my cashews when I realised I'd forgotten to make rejuvelac and dictum out of miso! So I used drained off yoghurt water and (a smaller amount of) light soy sauce instead, which worked very well. At least in the air dried Parmesan and Cheddars I made.